Fears
by NeoRetro10K
Summary: Most kids have mundane fears, like getting detention for being late to school, or getting bullied for lunch money. In the town of Amity Park, kids have a very real threat to fear: ghosts. However, Danny Fenton doesn't even fear most ghosts, much as he might pretend to. That's because he has a secret, and his fear is having that secret revealed.


Author's Note: This is my first fanfiction. I planned it to be a one-shot, but it's turning out to be not as dark as I wanted it, so I'm going to put up a happy ending and a dark alternate ending. Also, I know I wrote Danny a bit ADD-ish, but I think it's possible he might do it to distract himself from the stress. He's got a lot on his mind anyway.

… I think Jazz is rubbing off on me…

_Danny Phantom_ is owned by Butch Hartman in association with Nickelodeon.

Fears

Everybody is afraid of something. Everyone's fear is different. For most people, these fears are mundane things, such as: _I'm afraid I might get detention for being late. _Or: _I hope Dash doesn't stuff me into my locker again._ I admit that I was like that before I experienced the Ghost Portal accident that half-killed me, but those are the least of my problems now.

Even now that ghosts are a legitimate fear for others here in Amity Park, I can't really say I'm afraid of ghosts in general, though some specific ones creep me out (I'm looking at you, Frootloop – yes, I know, not really a ghost, but the point stands); I _am_ part ghost myself, after all. I can't afford to be afraid of ghosts when it's my job to use my own ghostly abilities to send them back to the Ghost Zone. Heck, I do my job a lot better than my ghost-hunting parents, not that they'd know that. And that's the root of my problem: they can't _ever_ know, because of what I am.

I'm walking home alone, coming from a long day at school – which was interrupted seven times by ghost attacks, three of which consisted of the Box Ghost ("Beware!") causing annoying but harmless mayhem of the "cardboard and square" variety – when my walk is interrupted by the armored ghost Skulker, who somehow manages to contort his metal faceplate into a demented grin before demanding my pelt (still gross, by the way) and threatening me with all sorts of high-tech weapons. Numerous guns pop out from hidden compartments everywhere on his armored battle suit. I smirk, unimpressed, and, after checking quickly for bystanders, I shift into my ghostly alter-ego, Danny Phantom.

"Come on, Skulker!" I taunt. "We've been at this for, what, a couple years now? I have a lot more important things to worry about, like doing homework, or finding a suitable feline companion for your Frootloop employer!"

"Your juvenile sense of humor will do nothing to save you, ghost child! I _will_ have my prize!"

Another voice rings out, "Not if I destroy him first!" Oh, joy. "Valerie the Ghost Slayer" has arrived. Her sensors must have gone off when I transformed. Thankfully, she must not have seen the actual transformation, as she would otherwise be gibbering about how it was impossible that I was both human and ghost. Nope, still the irrational blind hatred, so I knew she hadn't seen. At least there are some things I can count on in this world.

I somehow manage to fly, dodge, twist, flip, and contort myself out of the way of the ectoplasmic shots fired in the increasingly hazardous three-way slugfest between annoyed human-ghost hybrid, pelt-obsessed metallic ghost, and severely misguided hoverboard-bound hunter, imprisoning Skulker within the Fenton Thermos in the process. All that's left now is Valerie.

"You won't get away from me this time, ghost!"

"Um, how many times have you said that in the past month?"

"This _will_ be the last, I can promise you that!"

"Then you'll have to think of something else to say next time we meet!" I respond without missing a beat. With that, I promptly salute and fly intangibly through the ground, faintly hearing an incoherent frustrated shriek from above. I chuckle halfheartedly, wishing (mentally, of course – I don't want Desiree to overhear) that I could get Valerie to calm down and see that we should be working together.

This is the point at which a deadly combination of my usual bad luck and my boundless stupidity decides to rear its ugly head. I rise through the ground near FentonWorks, still as Phantom and forgetting to go invisible, only for my father Jack to look out the window, grabbing a Fenton Bazooka from who-knows-where and yelling to the high heavens, "I'll get you, Phantom punk, and rip you apart molecule by molecule!" Of course, my mother Maddie (the smarter of the two) hears this and bursts out the front door wielding her own Fenton Bazooka with a determined glint in her eyes. With Sam and Tucker having already walked home, and Jazz being away at college, there's no one to create a diversion for me.

School bullies? No problem. Ghosts? I constantly laugh in their faces. My parents? That's a different story. Incompetent as they can sometimes be, they always have their moments, and in those moments, they are forces to be reckoned with. This is one of their moments, and so I'm having a rare moment of my own: a moment of fear.

I'm not afraid of dying; I'm already halfway there. I _would_ regret subsequently leaving my town unprotected though, ungrateful as its inhabitants are. I can handle pain as well; increased pain tolerance from constantly fighting ghosts renders human bullies like Dash completely harmless to me; I have to _pretend_ to be afraid of him nowadays, for the sake of my secret identity.

My current fear is _not_ fake, and I hastily attempt to retreat. My action is cut short, however, by an ectoblast hitting me square between the shoulder blades, forcing me to the ground face first. After spitting out a wad of grass and dirt, I turn around and look into the eyes of my captors, my own parents, oblivious to my true identity. This is my fear: the risk of them finding out that I'm half-ghost and rejecting me due to being something they hate. And that risk is quickly becoming greater with every step they take toward me as I lose consciousness.


End file.
